Olympics

Less than 24 hours after the close of the Rio Olympics, Ryan Lochte took a major financial hit Monday for a drunken incident he initially tried to pass off as an armed robbery. In quick succession, four sponsors announced they were dumping the swimmer, who has since apologized and conceded that he embellished what happened during a now-infamous stop at a Rio gas station.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> So they pulled it off, the Brazilians did, just like they assured us they’d do. It wasn’t the greatest Olympics ever or even close. But, for me at least, it wasn’t as bad as it apparently was for many grumpy, inconvenienced media members.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team ended up right where expected. The Americans got their gold, and they did it easily. Saving their best for last in a tournament that had been tough, the U.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Claressa Shields won her second Olympic boxing gold medal Sunday, becoming the first American to win gold in two games. Shields dominated the first women’s boxing tournament in London and was again the class of the middleweight division in Rio.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> So a Mongolian wrestling coach strips down to his underpants in protest, while I’m busying watching a bunch of NBA players undress Serbia. By the time both demonstrations were over, I’m pretty sure the Serbs were the ones left more exposed, which is saying something since the only other thing the guy from Mongolia was wearing were socks.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> One-hundred-fifty-five runners started the Olympic Games marathon Sunday morning but anyone with medal ambitions was keeping an especially close eye on Kenya’s Eluid Kipchoge, the second-fastest marathoner in history.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Feyisa Lilesa’s silver medal finish Sunday morning extended Ethiopia’s legacy Olympic marathon success. From Abebe Bikila racing barefoot along a torch-lit course at the 1960 Games in Rome for the nation’s gold medal to his methodical defense four years later in Tokyo or passing the torch to 1968 winner Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runners raised the Olympic marathon to iconic status.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach chose a curious way over the weekend to try to spin the Rio Olympic Games as a success. “I think this is a really iconic games,” Bach said.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> With soccer star Neymar in attendance, the Brazilian men’s volleyball team swept Italy for the gold medal on Sunday. Brazil won 25-22, 28-26, 26-24 for its third gold medal in volleyball, which became an Olympic sport in 1964.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> With a kiss of the ball and an unforgettable kick, Brazil’s biggest soccer star gave the Olympic host its biggest moment of the games. Brazil won its first Olympic gold medal in soccer Saturday with a dramatic penalty kick by Neymar to defeat Germany, sending the nation into a frenzy after a 1-1 (5-4 shootout) victory.

NEW YORK >> American swimmer Ryan Lochte said he over-exaggerated what happened at a Rio de Janeiro gas station and acknowledged it was his “immature behavior” that got him and three teammates into a mess that consumed the final days of the Olympics.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> He had just created a moment that lifted the entire country. But Neymar reacted by instead falling to his knees, raising his outstretched arms and sobbing. His score Saturday gave host Brazil a desperate 5-4 victory in a penalty shootout over Germany, after the teams had played to a 1-1 draw.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> When the shot went in, he leapt with pure unbridled joy, thrusting his arms in thanks toward God and releasing a howl that, based on its terrifying sound, came from somewhere closer to Satan.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Allyson Felix and LaShawn Merritt are two savvy track stars who’ve been around long enough to know that not everything always goes to plan. Over the final, topsy turvy 30 minutes of running at the Olympic track on Saturday night, both Americans came away with prizes they’d been wishing for all along.

American swimmer Ryan Lochte said he “over-exaggerated” what happened at a Rio de Janeiro gas station and acknowledged it was his “immature behavior” that got him and three teammates into a mess that consumed the final days of the Olympics.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Before they took the court and won bronze, they gathered in the locker room one final time. Each player on the U.S. women’s volleyball took a turn to speak. Jordan Larson told her teammates she loved them and would fight for every one of them.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Matthew Centrowitz, gold medal around his neck, was still trying to find his bearings at the dizzying height of the top step on the Olympic Stadium medal podium Saturday night when he was approached by Lord Sebastian Coe.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> In the same pool where Michael Phelps made all his magic here, the U.S. women’s water polo team channeled its inner goal medalist Friday. The Americans successfully defended their Olympic title from 2012 with a 12-5 victory over Italy.

What to watch: After winning the men’s 200 meter finals on Thursday, Usain Bolt will compete in his final Olympic career event as the anchor of Jamaica’s 4x100 meter men’s relay team against a field that features Justin Gatlin and Team USA.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Max Holt did a little bit of everything. At the net, digging balls from just off the floor, finishing points with big, leaping swings. He and David Lee stuffed the Italians with stellar blocking.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> In the shadow of mighty Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix achieved something unprecedented in women’s track and field Friday by winning her fifth Olympic gold medal. And together with the rest of the 4x100-meter relay team, she brought the United States closer to its biggest medal haul in decades.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> For a sport where there’s so much unknown happening below the water, it was clear what was happening now above the surface. That much was obvious, as obvious as a grown man — wearing shoes and socks, long pants and a collared shirt — flailing for joy in a swimming pool.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot had been to four Olympic Games and had never won a gold medal and standing between her and a victory in the Olympic Games’ 5,000-meter final was Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> The Paralympics will go ahead next month despite being forced to implement further “major budget cuts” to the games in Rio de Janeiro. Poor ticket sales have compounded existing financial challenges in recession-battered Brazil, which have been impacting the Olympics.

RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian police official told The Associated Press that American swimmer Ryan Lochte fabricated a story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro. The official, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, spoke on the condition of anonymity Thursday because he was not authorized to speak about an ongoing probe.

There was high drama on the track for the USA women’s 4x100 relay team on Thursday morning at the Rio Olympics. The Americans, running in the second of three heats, failed to advance after dropping the baton on the second exchange, between Allyson Felix and English Gardner.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Leaning over, hands on her knees and cheering at every chance, injured U.S. star Foluke Akinradewo could only watch. The top-ranked Americans had fought back to force a fifth set against Serbia before falling short – short of the gold-medal goal that had driven her and others back to the national team for one more Olympic cycle.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> Helen Maroulis made a great run in women’s wrestling Thursday, reaching the gold medal match at 53-kg in the Rio Olympics. Once there, she reached an entirely higher level, defeating a legend in the sport, Japan’s Saori Yoshida, 4-1.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> She’s only 18 and that birthday didn’t arrive until just a few weeks ago. On Friday, Maddie Musselman could celebrate belatedly in a way that always arrives on time: the acceptance of an Olympic gold medal.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A weightlifter from Kyrgyzstan became the first athlete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics to be stripped of a medal after failing a drug test. Also on Thursday, two canoeist were suspended and could lose bronze medals, a Chinese swimmer and Brazilian cyclist were both disqualified and an Indian wrestler was suspended and ordered out of the Olympic village a day before his first competition.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> The result was so heavy, so loaded with emotion and consequence, that the loser wilted under the weight. And so did the winner. There they were, both on their knees, both crumpled forward, both holding their faces.

Rio de Janeiro >> Ashton Eaton joined a most exclusive club at Olympic Stadium Thursday night. Eaton became only the third man to successfully defend the Olympic decathlon title with a Games record-equaling victory.

RIO DE JANIERO >> The U.S. team made the most of its second chance to qualify for the women’s 4x100-meter relay final, running the fastest time of the day in a solo re-run before the night session began.

Rio de Janeiro >> In a sort of victory lap before the victory, Usain Bolt held up his left arm, his index finger extended into a wet night, as he walked slowly clockwise from a tunnel entrance, around the Olympic Stadium curve to his blocks in Lane 6 and the start of the Olympic Games 200-meter final.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A Brazilian judge ordered Wednesday that the passports of American swimmers Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen be seized, confining them to the country as authorities investigate their claim they were robbed at gunpoint during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

On the day Kerri Walsh Jennings celebrated after winning bronze in her fourth trip to the Olympics, the woman who battled alongside her for years in the sand was nowhere near the beach-volleyball stadium or Rio’s spotlight.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> It was as close as a two-goal game in the third quarter Wednesday. But, eventually and somewhat inevitably, the U.S. women’s water polo team worked its way into position to go for a gold medal.

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A Japanese journalist asked American hurdlers Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin how they were going to celebrate their historic sweep of the Olympic Games 100-meter hurdles medals, the one and only 1-2-3 of the Rio Games so far.